The pipeline, built by the Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, would cross the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s sacred land and burial places, as well as more than 200 water ways on its path through four states.
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The Dakota Access pipeline, which is already more than half completed, is a massive $3.7 billion project that would transport 470,000 barrels of oil a day across four states from the oil fields in Stanley, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, to Patoka in southern IL, where it would link with other existing pipelines.
The protesters have gathered by the thousands to camp out alongside the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who say the pipeline – which travels through the tribe’s ancestral lands and passes within half a mile of its current reservation – will desecrate sacred land and pollute water.
The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services is requesting up to $6 million in borrowing authority from the Bank of North Dakota to offset costs for providing assistance to local law enforcement in response to Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
The Corps said it will move quickly to make a final determination about the portion of the project near the reservation.
Nonetheless, 20 people at least went to prison yesterday or jail, holding cells, wherever they take them, for protesting this disaster of a pipeline that this company wants to run through sacred ground held by the Lakota Sioux tribes, and other tribes of the Sioux nation.
Signs bearing phrases such as “100% Clean Energy Now”, “No Dakota Access Pipeline” and “In Solidarity with Standing Rock” could be seen at Tuesday’s protest.
In the lead-up to the ruling, tribal chairman David Archambault II declared: “Regardless of the court’s decision today, we will continue to be united and peaceful in our opposition to the pipeline”.
The industry says the Dakota Access pipeline is necessary.
A total of 60 people were arrested before Wednesday in connection with the protests that started about a month ago, including 22 arrested Tuesday at a construction site near Glen Ullin, the most arrests in one day so far.
Hundreds turned out Tuesday night for a rally to support a North Dakota tribe trying to block construction of an oil pipeline.
She says construction workers were “swarmed” by protesters and that two people had “attached” themselves to equipment.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who on September 8 proposed legislation that would prevent the Army Corps from approving the pipeline until the agency has completed an environmental impact statement, praised the agencies’ decision. “Our fight isn’t over until there is permanent protection of our people and resources from the pipeline”. “We won’t stand for this any longer”.
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Also Tuesday, Energy Transfer Partners worked with the sheriff’s office to remove construction equipment that was damaged last week by protesters near State Highway 6.
